Understanding Water System Manager's Motivations for and Their Perceived Benefits of Consolidation

ABSTRACT Across the United States, policymakers are busy developing incentive programs and mandatory policies to speed up adoption of consolidations and reduce the number of regulated water systems. Little attention, however, has been paid to why water system managers themselves, whose cooperation, if not leadership, is often required, pursue consolidation and how they characterize the benefits. Here we leverage novel, representative data from the California Water System Consolidation Survey to shed light on these questions. We find that consolidation is motivated by a diverse array of concerns within and among projects. In 80% of cases, managers reported benefits pertaining to their motivations, suggesting an overall high level of effectiveness. One exception is motivations related to technical, managerial, and financial capacity for which respondents reported fewer related benefits. Many also reported additional benefits beyond those specifically related to their motivations. We identify several factors that are associated with increased consolidation effectiveness and with specific benefits including geographic isolation of the systems, previous relationships between water systems, and water system initiation of consolidation. The results highlight opportunities to advance beneficial, community‐driven projects as well as challenges meriting scholarly and policy attention, including the need to align consolidation rhetoric with the priorities and experiences of managers themselves.